I am completely in love with Instagram — that’s no secret. They always say the best camera is the one you have with you, and despite my love of my pro SLR, my iPhone goes everywhere with me. That means it’s in hand to capture life’s most beautiful moments that would otherwise slip away — my dog sleeping on my lap, my home-cooked meal, everyday emotions, that gorgeous skyline on my runs, and the list goes on. Instagram is there to make those iPhone photos just as beautiful as they deserve to look while sharing them with a community of followers.

I am planning a photo a day for all of 2012, but when I saw the photo a day challenge for January (hashtag #janphotoaday), I couldn’t resist joining in the fun.

Here are my first three days.

Day 1 — Me.

Forgive the bed hair, jamies and lack of make-up. This is me in my natural state.

Day 2 — Breakfast

Testing out my new coffee mug.

Day 3 — Something I adore.

My loves, Nate and Daisy.

Are you participating in #janphotoaday?

It’s not too late to catch up and join in. Let me know if you are and give me a follow! I’d love to follow you back. My instagram is Amfairbanks.

The new year is upon us and I am fresh and motivated for great things. Some people say resolutions are all in your head or that humans are predisposed to think optimistically around the new year for no reason. That’s why we write out our goals and changes for the new year and do silly things like eat pork and sauerkraut (it’s an old family tradition, I think from the German side). I personally say I’ll take it, even if it isn’t “real.” Happiness is all in your head, so if I can convince myself to make goals for the better, why not?

We always start the new year with pork and sauerkraut for health and wealth.

So today I’m living that. I knew how badly I needed a mental break and one of my goals is to stay in tune with my body so I don’t overwork myself. I spent half the day lazying around the house with my husband writing our goals for the year, made a good breakfast, went on a jog with my pup and simple enjoyed the day. I know how normal that sounds, but I generally do about a million things at once, so that much relaxation is unusual.

Daisy is the best running partner ever.

It was a gorgeous day to run in the sunshine.

Writing goals can be both exciting and scary. It’s hard to commit to some things knowing once they are written down, you feel like you fail if you don’t follow through. Today my husband and I came up with some individual goals and some as a couple. I like to throw some what I call “novelty” goals in there, just as things to try in the new year. I won’t share them all, as some are personal, but…

here are a few of my goals for 2012.

Read 25 books (have recommendations? I’d love them)

Make a recipe from each of my cookbooks

Try a new recipe or make up my own one night a week

Take better care of my skin

Create an Etsy page to start selling my artwork

Keep my inbox clean

Learn how to sew a wall tapestry

Exercise 5 days a week

Eat 3-5 servings of vegetables everyday

Create at least two projects a month that I pin on Pinterest

Grow a garden

Clear our basement and donate stuff we don’t use

Have a date night with the hubs once a week

Take a photo all 366 days

Blog at least once a week

What are your goals for the new year?

2012 is going to be the best year of my life so far.

The Mayan calendar says the world ends in December 21, 2012, as do many other cultures. I’ll be honest, the rational side of me thinks there’s no way — it’s sort of like Y2K all over again where all the hype happened for no apparent reason. But there’s that little superstitious part of me that kinda freaks out about it. Once I let myself watch a whole documentary about the whole thing. That was a bad idea.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have this weird thing with numbers. Not entirely sure how it started, but I’ve done this thing since I was a kid where certain numbers were “good numbers” and I’d add numbers together to determine if dates and such were acceptable. I could go on and on about the whole thing (as my friends could tell you), but I’ll spare you (for today). Anyway, my two favorite numbers are 21 and 12, so the predicted apocalypse on 12-21-12 doesn’t help with the irrational nerves over it.

That’s why I’ve decided 2012 is going to be the best year of my life. Like the idea behind “The Secret,” I think you can will things to be what you’re looking for by your attitude towards them. It’s all a matter of hard work and positive thinking. I read this article the other day about common life regrets and how happiness is a choice. So why not live 2012 like it’s our last year? I really don’t fancy the world ending when I haven’t even hit 30, but will it really hurt to make as many of my dreams a reality as possible?

No, I’m not going to blow all my money or do anything too crazy. Just going to spend my time wisely — soak up every moment of beauty, visit with loved ones, work hard and play hard. Do I really think the world will end? I really hope not. But just in case, let’s make 2012 the best year ever.

Here’s to a happy new year and many great things to look back on in 2013.